Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince [M]

These are dark days, very dark days indeed. With Voldemort and his followers gaining new strengths and armies, the Order of the Phoenix just can't keep up. With Death Eaters following everyone he loves and sinister things happening at Hogwarts, Harry is finding that it's not so cool, being the Chosen One.

We're in really deep and dark territory now people. I've said this before, from about movie number 4, these cease to be "kids'" movies. Now we're into the really sinister stuff.

With the magical community finally knowing the truth about Voldemort's return, the entire world is in panic. Death Eaters are flying around in broad daylight, kidnapping wizards and keeping everyone under a cloud-cover of terror. Nowhere is safe, not even Hogwarts. There are sinister things going on at the school and Harry and Dumbledore have made it their mission to learn as much as they can about Voldemort so that they may be able to find some way to destroy him. With all eyes on Harry, being the Chosen One, the pressure is on, and not just to save the world. And what about all these sinister things happening? Is there a Death Eater on the inside of Hogwarts? With so many questions that need to be answered, it promises to be a hectic year.

Although Daniel Radcliffe is technically the Chosen One, I have to say that the movie belonged to Rupert Grint. He's a little ray of comic sunshine in this dark cloud of a flick, providing comic relief and getting the girl(s). Though I do have to draw attention to how funny Daniel was in the scene where he's "high" on the luck potion. He was priceless.

As I said before, we're really getting into the dark stuff here. A prime example of this is the Inferi, awful creatures that are basically re-animated corpses. I remember seeing this in the cinema and thinking "that's just how I imagined them." We also get to see a lot more of the villains this time. Tom Felton who plays Draco Malfoy has a much bigger and more dramatic part to play in this flick, and he was great. Not to mention the many kids who play Tom Riddle when we're looking back at memories of when Voldemort was a child. He was twisted even then!

There was not as much action in this movie as there was in the ones prior. Mainly because, like the book, this part of Harry's journey was all about research and planning. As Gandalf the White (and I know that he's a different wizard from a different movie) once said:

"It's the deep breath before the plunge."

That line describes this movie perfectly because, action-wise, this movie was almost mundane in comparison to the previous ones. It was still enjoyable nonetheless.

We have a new face to welcome too. Jim Broadbent signs on to play Horace Slughorn and he was brilliant. He could seem a little bit dodgy sometimes, an older professor hanging out with young students, but I suppose that's what gets a response from a modern audience.

Filled with snogging, grey clouds, confrontations, curses, jealousy, and the very occasional laugh, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is the sixth movie in the Harry Potter series and it's probably the only one that actually inspired people who hadn't read the books, to get themselves a copy and bone up. Without giving too much away, there was a connection between the title and a character that wasn't explained to the audience.

See, films are never as good as the books!